PUTTENHAM
GEORGE PUTTENHAM’S comments on the appropriate language for poets, which he made in “The Arte of English Poesie” in 1589, provide the most detailed evidence regarding the evaluation of Early Modern English varieties. They can be interpreted as a statement on the standard. He explicitly warns against using the language of 1. residents of border areas and port towns, because language mixing occurs there; 2. universities, because of Latinisms and Greekisms; 3. the rural population; 4. the lower classes; 5. the old poets; and 6. the ‘Northern-men’ beyond the Trent, i.e., north of Nottingham and Lincoln counties. PUTTENHAM is of the opinion that the best English is the usual speech of the Court, and that of London and the shires around London within sixty miles, and not much beyond.